The Effects of Spying on Nations

Spying is the action of gathering important data from an enemy maybe a government, business institution, or a high profile person without the party’s concern. The act goes against privacy rights of people. According to Ogasawara, spying goes against a person’s right to privacy or freedom from interference (15). Though spying is against the laws of many governments including the United States and the British administrations, the act is common among these states. Farrell and Charles reveal that, spying is mostly common among the security agencies in the super power nations including the United States, Britain, Japan and Russia (8). The authors report that through 20th century, the international community has been embracing the act of spying as common political action. However, many human rights activists are debating the legality of spying. The activists argue that spying interferes with right to privacy while the security community argues that the act is part of keeping countries safe. Thus, the paper herein discusses effects of spying on nations.

The concept of Spying

Spying is so significant in running a government or a corporate organization. According to Farrell and Charles, great leadership is the one with information against the competitor or the enemy (10). Being in possession of data including political, financial, security, diplomatic reports, broadcasts, and military reports of an enemy can make it easy for a leadership to make informed international decisions. During the first and second world war, the enemy nations used spies on each other so they could learn and be ahead in terms of planning. According to Ogasawara, the act of spying can never end in the world (17). The author argues that spying is increasing in the globe due to the increase in diplomatic actions for example embassies.

Effects of Spying

Importance of Spying

Every nation wants to outshine other states and provide better quality services to their citizens. First, according to Ogasawara, nations can use spying methods to learn about the development of other states (14). Spies can inform their governments about the development plans other competitor nations. Second, spying can be used to improve the security of a certain state. For example, the Unites States of America sent a spy to go and research about Osama Bin Ladin. After several months of spaying on al-Qaeda, the spy reported to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and as a result, the greatest security threat to the US government was eliminated.

 Spying has been used by many governments to improve their security status and keep their citizens safe. Farrell and Charles reveal that before the leaders of England, United States and other super power countries visit the developing nations, spies are usually sent to gather information about the state of security on the countries. Third, spying can prevent war between nations. The United Nations is mandated to ensure that there is peace between all its member states. On that note, they have spies who report to them every activity of these nations and in case war is looming, they can know and prevent it.

Disadvantage of spying on other Nations

Though security professionals argue that spaying improves security of nations, the act can lead to loss of lives. Kuehn reveals that, in1980s, a United States spy released so important information about the U.S. Navy to the Soviet Union, an action that led to the death of a lot Korean people (404). According to the author, the data enabled the Soviet to plan and bomb the Korean jet in 1983 thus, killing many innocent lives.  Second, spying can make the citizens of a country pay a lot of tax to fund the service and correct the damages. After the release of the data by the U.S. spy, the government used over $1 billion to restructure the communication system of the Navy. Additionally, governments spend a lot of money fund and run spying activities, the capital which they get from the tax payers. Spying is full of betrayals, for example a top CIA agent, Ames was found guilty of selling important CIA data leading to the death of more than 10 agents. Lastly, the same way spying can spying can prevent war, the act can also lead to massive war between states. If a state finds out that another country is spying on her, war can emerge between the two nations.

In conclusion, spying is significant for the purpose of national security. However, some of the people in charge of gathering these data sell the information to enemies hence risking the lives of many people. For example when Ames sold CIA data to the soviet, almost ten CIA agents were killed. Governments cannot survive without information, hence spying can help them get the data they want. However, these governments should use the data they have for positive development. Additionally, the states should ensure that trustworthy and credible persons are put in charge of the data.  In other words, spying is good when used positively while bad when used in a wrong way.

Works Cited

Farrell, Henry, and Charles L. Glaser. "The role of effects, saliencies and norms in US Cyberwar doctrine." Journal of Cybersecurity 3.1 (2017): 7-17.

Kuehn, Kathleen M. "Framing mass surveillance: Analyzing New Zealand’s media coverage of the early Snowden files." Journalism 19.3 (2018): 402-419.

Ogasawara, Midori. "Surveillance at the Roots of Everyday Interactions: Japan's Conspiracy Bill and its Totalitarian Effects." Surveillance & Society 15 (2017).